Livni

V. The Losers

The big losers are clearly the Charedi parties. They have basically lost the main things that they have been fighting for over the years:

Unlimited draft exemption - gone

Complete educational freedom - gone

Government Monetary benefits for Avreichim - gone, only for people who work or try to get a job

It will be very interesting to see what happens now in the Charedi world.

The other big loser is Netanyahu. With this coalition he has burned his bridges with the Charedi parties. The perception is that he was outmaneuvered by Bennet and Lapid and he has made many enemies in the Likud. You have to believe that this is his last hurrah as Prime Minister.

3 comments:

Bluke I see some Schadenfreude in your post.I often do not see eye to eye with the charedim,I guess my view would be closer to Jonathan Rosenblum or even to yours, but I regret the damage done to the Lomdei Tora by people who have no understanding of Tora learning and yidishkeit.

This is certainly a momentous day.The biggest impact, in my opinion, is the raising of the threshhold which will wipe out a lot of smaller parties and force fringe groups to join existing larger parties to have a Knesset presence. Why, it might even lead to something close to a majority government one day.But I still don't think you'll ever see a mass Chareidi draft. It'll take the army a few years to get ready for such a large influx and that's assuming there isn't massive civil disobedience on the part of the Chareidi population. Furthermore, if it takes long enough to start implementing the universal draft the government might fall in the meantime and after new elections we might be in a situation where the Chareidi parties once again hold the balance of power. Don't count your Chareidim until they're drafted.

I agree, particularly with your last paragraph. This is the end of the Netanyahu era. B"H, someone, Lapid or someone else, will grow enough to succeed him. Bibi wasn't "outmaneuvered," but there were only so many fences he could credibly straddle.